January 25, 2007

The new year has come and gone... I'm a johnny-come-lately to my blog in 2007. A little too much "life" in my life, if you know what I mean. Health challenges, a new day job here in Sonoma County, little kids underfoot -- all conspiring against my time. But unlike a fictional place, Thimbleberry persists whether I blog about it or not. And 2007 has turned out to be very, very good at the cabin!

We broke out a handsome new guestbook which we are eager to find filled on subsequent visits...

The last one has served us very well, and is being retired to an upstairs shelf with all its amusing anecdotes, heartfelt wishes and delightful sketches stored inside... perfect "rainy day" reading!

We welcomed the New Year with a rare electrical outage of several hours, which meant a festive pasta dinner cooked entirely atop the wood stove! Enjoyed the treat of emergency candlelight by which to dine, and then the power conveniently cameback on just in time for dish washing.

Fortunately, nothing out of the ordinary happened to our oven on sugar cookie night.

Much of this trip was enjoyed outdoors in truly spectacular snow conditions...

The Pacific Crest Trail looked positively folkloric in heavy snow. We took a snow-shoe walk in near the cabin, stopping for a cocoa break at a convenient snag.

(BTW: Ruby has never actually tasted cocoa, but, true to her breed, she remains eternally optimistic about her chances each time a steaming thermos is cracked open out on the trail...)

Cross-country ski conditions at the cabin were perfect for several days.

For some of us (sigh...) the learning curve is steep, but we all manage to have fun!

And nothing beats following freshly laid track back to one's own cozy front door...

Each visit's "last" night at the cabin is always bittersweet. The girls got in several good sled runs at that magical point in twilight when almost anything seems possible and all notions of time are temporarily suspended.

We left Thimbleberry Cabin the next day, snug and inviting, waiting for a New Year's worth of fresh visitors and old friends.

December 28, 2006

Here's the text of Thimbleberry's first "annual report"... Guests from 2005 & 2006 will receive this by mail with a few 2007 calendar cards. A big thank you to everyone who helped us this year.

Dear Friends of Thimbleberry...

These past months have brought many exciting changes to our lives, most notably through the launching of Thimbleberry Cabin as a full-fledged vacation rental in the beautiful Southern Oregon Cascades. We wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of you who visited in the past two years. The wonderful comments you have left in our guestbook, the candid feedback you've given us about your experiences, the very life you have breathed into these rooms has really helped transform Thimbleberry from a house into a home!

We're happy to report that auctioned weekends at Thimbleberry have raised nearly $5000.00 for local charities in the past 18 months. We look forward to raising even more money in the year ahead. While we will continue to support ongoing works near and dear to our hearts, we are also always open to hearing about smaller charitable endeavors, especially when they involve young families confronting catastrophic loss or illness. Feel free to write us if you have a suggestion...

Enclosed you will find several 2007 calendar cards with our website address at the bottom. Please use them at home, take them to the office, or share them with someone you know who may be planning a trip to our neck of the woods in the coming year... Most of all, we want you to know you're always welcome at Thimbleberry. Returning guests always enjoy a 10% discount on subsequent bookings, no matter what the rate or season! Here's hoping your travels lead you home again to Thimbleberry Cabin.

December 22, 2006

Winter solstice has come and gone... time to send out a heartfelt holiday greeting to all of our friends and guests. Over the years we've wised up enough to print up New Year's greetings rather than Christmas cards. If you've stayed at Thimbleberry this past year, look for our first "annual report" in your snail mail, along with handy little calendars from Snapfish. Personally, I like Italian Christmas best of all on January 6... That's the morning Italian children look for gifts brought by La Befana... Some say her origins stem from when the local witch realized her mistake in not accompanying the wise men to the manger. Imagine -- a whole celebration predicated on reflection, regret and the grace of second chances! What's not to love about that?

Yes, snowflakes have been sighted on our front porch!.. Sshhh... don't tell anyone we found them on a long chain at Target... If you look at them sideways with your eyes scrunched together they really do look real, in an Olive, the Other Reindeer sort of way. (And, yes, in the future the girls and I might want to limit how many times we let Paul watch that Elf DVD...)

Until next year... gingerbread wishes and a dollhouse full of dreams from our family to yours.

December 12, 2006

When I last posted about our Mendocino National Forest tree cutting adventure I was too caught up in our 'Silver Tip' Christmas tree's physical idionsyncracies to recognize its archetypal beauty...

Sort of reminds me of Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face: the quirky bookstore bohemian transformed into international cover girl. Our tree is looking very Oh Tannenbaumesque all of a sudden, glimpsed here in our bay window through the Victorian-trim pocket doorway...

On our tree the old and new mingle comfortably. I have my grandmother's complete collection of dimestore ShinyBrites from the year she married & set up her own first Christmas tree in 1938, and every year since our marriage in 1989 we've added a few new ones.

The Unicorn in Ashland, OR is our favorite source for wonderful silvered glass designs we never seem to see anywhere else. This year's ornament is a gorgeously detailed hammered copper craftsman-style lantern with bas-relief pinecones. The tinsel is true, vintage tin... I found a cache at a local thrift store still in the original boxes with Rosenberg's Department Store price tags!

The ShinyBrites are hard to photograph... I always seem to catch them out of focus. Doesn't it look as if these were shot out in the rain? My ShinyBrites are slowly dying; their pigments fading, glitter sloughing away like the dust from butterfly wings. Every year at least one implodes in my careful hands leaving only a small pile of brilliant, jagged confetti... I tell myself this will be their last Christmas in the window, but by the next year I concede "just one more..." I have already lost so much -- the key people and places of my childhood are irretrievably gone. Can I really stand to lose these too?

I've decided not to assume an art conservator's role with my ShinyBrites. I'd rather treat them like the people and places they evoke... beloved and celebrated each in their moment, mourned and released each in their passing. Slowly, inexorably old favorites give way to new. The ornament collection my girls will receive in their adulthood may differ in content from what I have today, but hopefully the neural pathways illuminated into our family's past will beckon just as brightly as with the torches cast by these delicate, glittering ShinyBrites...

December 07, 2006

No photos and frivolity today... The Thanksgiving weekend travel tragedy involving the Kim family of San Francisco is a good reminder to all of us to refresh our knowledge base about winter travel. Here's our take on safe winter road travel in Southern Oregon...

Winter renters, especially fellow mild weather dwellers here in the Bay Area, often ask me "Do we really need chains?" Yes, yes, yes... really! If you are in a high-clearance, 4-wheel drive vehicle you will find that in most instances you won't have to actually put them on. But Oregon chain law may still require them in conditional road closures, even for SUVs with all-weather or snow-specific tires! And while cell phones, on-board GPS and internet mapping services are fun and nifty, it is important to remember that these sorts of gadgets are not reliable enough or fool-proof enough to substitute for accurate local information.

ODOT maintains phone numbers and a website which will allow you to check on Oregon road and weather conditions at any time. Within Oregon, you may dial 511 or (800)977-6368 toll free; outside Oregon that number is (503)588-2941. The OR number is posted inside the cabin as well for the convenience of our visitors. The main roads leading to Thimbleberry Cabin -- Hwy. 140, Dead Indian Memorial, Clover Creek -- are two-lane county thoroughfares groomed and maintained by Jackson and Klamath Counties respectively. Winter travel on single lane, unlined Forest Service roads is just not advisable in any circumstances. Check maps carefully and call local authorities if you need more information about a route!

In a recent Medford Mail Tribune article, Michael Strong, a wilderness instructor and director of the University of Oregon's Outdoor Pursuits Program, states the most important thing is first and foremost to "tell someone where you're going." That's an easy one to forget when traveling, but simple to implement. Remember to keep in touch with a designated friend or family member back home when you travel in and out of snow country.

Annette Hall has authored a good article on putting together your own winter emergency car kit at www.reliableanswers.com. I suggest all our visitors look at this article, or one like it, while preparing for their trip. At the very least, plan on traveling with warm jackets, hats, gloves and waterproof footwear for each family member, regardless of current weather conditions. Always keep some high-calorie, non-perishable food and an abundant supply of drinking water in your vehicle. Be prepared to fill your gas tank when you have the chance, as services can be few and far between in the mountains. If you are planning to use a rental vehicle, be sure to confirm it has all the car safety basics like jumper cables, safety flares, etc. in addition to snow chains. Some rental companies maintain that their SUVs don't need chains. This is inaccurate; according to Oregon chain law as published at the official ODOT website, heavy snow on steep grades can make chains temporarily necessary for ALL vehicles. If you are travelling in an SUV without chains, be prepared to obey conditional road closings when notified!

The odds are in favor of your never needing emergency supplies or skills in your travels... But if any of us were ever to need these items it is important to respect the fact that our very survival could suddenly hinge upon any one of them! Always, always be prepared...

December 05, 2006

Visiting our cabin in the Cascades has really changed the way we think about Christmas trees. Back in the day when we were relative newlyweds living in a tiny San Francisco flat, making the trip north to Sonoma county to cut a tree at one of Sebastopol's charming tree farms was a really big deal. Fast forward a dozen years or so to Thimbleberry, where virtually all of the trees in the surrounding Fremont & Winema National Forest look like they're auditioning for the role of "White House Christmas Tree" and suddenly we're a couple of jaded tree snobs...

All the other 364 days of the year we're tree huggers. Really. But domestic lots just don't do it for us any more, I'm sorry to say. Our family's sordid holiday pleasure? We like to pull a permit and bag a wild tree. This year early snow & cabin chores precluded an Oregon tree at Thanksgiving, so last weekend we headed off to the remote reaches of the Mendocino National Forest in search of the elusive, high elevation Abies magnifica, or "Silver Tip" red fir. And what a day it was...

Early a.m. found us laying in carbohydrate reserves at Cafe Serafornia in downtown Calistoga. Love their walnut studded Viennese coffee cake! Then it was a pleasant drive over Mt. St. Helena and around the east shore of Clear Lake until we reached the Forest Service office on Middle Elk Road in Upper Lake. From there we departed for points previously unknown to us, past Lake Pillsbury and up, up, up the side of Hull Mountain (elevation 6873'), deep in the heart of the national forest. With the mysterious disappearance of the San Francisco Kim family in Southern Oregon very much on our minds, we made sure we had all the back country essentials packed in our vehicle, but once we got out there we found ourselves anything but alone. Hull Mountain is a popular recreation destination, so little mud-spattered OHV Mad Max carts darted to and fro, para-gliders hung above the ridge line, deer hunters jumped from truck cabs brandishing rifles, kids with monster-tire pickups played at snow-boarding the scrubby patches accumulated by the side of the road, and several other urban tree trippers like ourselves sailed by in foliage topped SUVs. I'm sure an illicit pot farmer or two must have completed the parade of proclivities on display, but with nothing to give them away to the untrained eye, who knows? Just another weirdly democratic day in public lands paradise...

Cooked a picnic of hotdogs and baked beans on our campstove and almost turned back without a tree, but Paul was determined to find his "Silver Tip." On the very last leg of the trip, just below the Hull Mountain overlook, we saw some two-wheel drive half-tons fishtailing for control in snow slurry and decided we had gone far enough. Found a little stand of young red firs and made our selection. This year's Christmas tree is long and lean, kinda like El Greco might render a Christmas tree conflated with one of his St. Sebastians or Christs. I think it tells a tale of just how tough life can be on the hardscrabble margins of high elevation California. Did I mention I love it? Butchering a wild tree is a brutal thing; a thing not to be undertaken lightly... Standing next to our tree this morning in the half light of dawn I remind myself that many trees will die in the forest this year. I hope this tree's month-long seasonal wake in our parlor mitigates its loss. A wildly dark pagan streak in me delights in this tree's presence and admires its sacrifice.

Making the first cuts. Who knew Paul could look so sexy with a pine needle Borat moustache??

BTC (Before Thimbleberry Cabin), we would have gone crazy at the sight of this much snow...

December 03, 2006

One of the things I've noticed since we began making regular trips north and south between Klamath and Sonoma counties is how ideas about "home" grow, drift, and take shape between these two very different sites... Thimbleberry may be physically remote from our everyday life, but we feel its influence here in countless little ways.

This week I was inspired to create a cabin folly on my own Santa Rosa front porch. We love the Arts & Crafts era feel and easy durability of this resin wicker from KMart, but the garishly striped cushions that came with it left a lot to be desired... Having just paid the proverbial arm-and-a-leg for some Sunbrella yardage for another project, I knew Santa would not be stuffing any custom slipcovers in my stocking this Christmas! Trolling through the aisles of Big Lots I stumbled over a wonderful set of Adirondack print flannel sheets which I made into simple, envelope style slipcovers without even sewing; just cut them out and ironed them up with Stitch-Witchery.

Now we can sit and daydream about points north on a porch that would look at home in the Cascades or even the Catskills... Puts me in a mind to mount a pair of snowshoes on the wall when I get the chance.

November 30, 2006

We're gradually getting used to the gypsy-like rythym of dividing our time between Sonoma and Klamath counties. Check in here to see how these two lives intersect and often enliven one another...

Arrived home in Sonoma county dog-tired from Thanksgiving at the cabin and were greeted by the happy spectacle of jars & jars of brined olives lined up in rows in our pantry. Just over ten quarts this year, from our four trees. And we're not talking pampered orchard divas, no...these are real urban tree soldiers growing in the midst of garden hodge-podge on a 5,000-square-foot busy corner lot near downtown Santa Rosa. Amazing! I do love home-brined olives...

Wouldn't you reckon with this many olives about there's just gotta be a martini in here somewhere??

November 28, 2006

Welcome to a celebration of the seasons at Thimbleberry Cabin! Fall is just about to conclude, a season of both beginnings and endings at Thimbleberry... Fall is the season in which we first bought this cabin in 2004. Fall is when we launched our vacation rental business in 2005. Most importantly, fall is when we begin to bid a bittersweet farewell to the current year and eagerly await a new year's wintry birth...

The southern Oregon Cascades "snow door" was flung wide-open this fall, and we enjoyed a white Thanksgiving at the cabin. Our little acre of lightly wooded meadow was transformed into a scene straight from a snow-globe. Paul spent a fair number of evenings reading Sybille von Olfers' "Root Children" to our four-year-old, Gigi, at bedtime and I must admit that familiar old story takes on a whole new resonance when there's a good 6" of fresh snow blanketing the ground!

Of course we had a delicious turkey dinner, but this is the week's meal I wanted to record -- just good crusty bread, some cheese and a hard salami. The simplest of meals transformed by the setting and the mood. The vintage game bird bar glasses were a thrift store score at $.80/each. No more mixing up our drinks now that each of us can be readily identified as a "wild turkey," "mourning dove" or "wood cock"...

Santa-in-a-canoe journeyed north in our Honda and didn't have to portage even once...

I love this John Muir quote... I don't know what Muir would make of all the faux greenery, though -- hopefully he would applaud any impulse to leave trees largely unmolested. I do miss the smell of fresh greenery in the house. Seems ironic in the midst of so much surrounding forest to be favoring fake over real, but out here we are far from a manned fire-station and the heat provided by our trusty wood stove is so very, very drying... So faux it is; I have only to walk outside and inhale for a good strong whiff of the real stuff.

Thimbleberry got its first Christmas tree this year! Found this quirky cabin porch ornament at the thrift store and personalized it with some homemade vellum labels. The girls and I made our customary pilgrimage to The Unicorn in downtown Ashland for a few new ornaments. Slowly we are building up our collection...

Splurged on a beautiful set of snowshoe reading lamps from the Orvis catalogue to hang on either side of the master bedroom's bed. Just looking at the soft, warm light they cast makes me feel drowsy. Of course, not all of the week's check-listed chores and installations went so smoothly... Spent nearly 6 hours trying to get an Earthlink dial-up internet connection going before throwing up our hands in frustration and calling it quits. And we're simply not ready for the constant intrusion of a satellite dish into our life in the mountains. Anyone can easily check email at the public library when making a trip into town. Some things are better left "as is"...

Sometimes it's the simplest things, like this L.L. Bean snow stick stuck in the ground just outside our kitchen window, that bring the most pleasure. Now if we could only teach Ruby to read the numbers and report back to us in barks or growls... On the porch we installed a wireless weather station receiver so that we can obsessively contrast indoor and outdoor temperatures and watch the barometric pressure drop with each approaching cold front. Thrilling stuff!

This is the sort of vignette that makes every day in the Cascades seem special. We were out in the garage, completely caught up in the mundane tasks of cleaning up from Christmas decorating & sorting our trash, when all of a sudden the clouds parted above the Mountain Lakes Wilderness, allowing the barest sliver of sunset to flit across the face of its western slope. We shot this from the top of our own driveway, full trashcans and empty boxes momentarily eclipsed by the ancient dance of sunlight on fresh snow...